Updates from December, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 19:08 on 2019-12-25 Permalink | Reply  

    Grim story here for Christmas: a man shot his partner dead and then killed himself, Wednesday morning, in an apartment on Sherbrooke at Chomedey. TVA makes this the year’s 24th homicide.

     
    • Kate 19:05 on 2019-12-25 Permalink | Reply  

      There’s a freezing rain warning out for Boxing Day.

      As it turned out, the ice only began to collect later in the day, and is still around Friday morning.

       
      • Kate 13:50 on 2019-12-25 Permalink | Reply  

        Doing some desultory research in the Google newspaper archive, I found several pieces in the July 24, 1941 paper that fit together interestingly. The dominant theme in this edition, as in others at the time, is the progress of the world war, so most of the local news without military application is on secondary pages inside.

        Part 1 (4 cascading headers first, under “News and Features for Women”)
        BICYCLING GROWING IN GENERAL FAVOR
        Local Dealers Note Demand Exceeds Supply Owing to War Conditions
        SOME PARTS IMPORTED
        Secondhand Models Are Not Available in Sufficient Quantities As More Take to Cycling
        By Harriet Hill
        More and more Montreal citizens have taken to pedalling. Go down any country road and the bicycle squad is in action. Visit any suburban community and the bicycles are out – in force. More and more begin to appear on city streets… etc.

        The story is mostly about how wartime metal shortages have meant shortages of bikes and parts.

        Part 2 on a page with mostly local news
        At top, this piece:
        HIGHWAY PROGRAM AROUND MONTREAL PROVES IMPRESSIVE
        Hon. T.D. Bouchard Takes Royal Automobile Club Party on Tour of Work
        $7,000,000 TO BE SPENT
        Transisland, Cote de Liesse, N.Y. State Border and Ile Perrot Roads Among Those Inspected
        Rapid progress is being made on the province’s program of highway development… etc.

        But on the same page:
        CYCLING IS BANNED ON TWO NEW ROADS
        Forbidden on Transisland Boulevard, Ile Perrot Highway
        Prohibition of bicycle traffic on the new Transisland boulevard and on the new road from Ste Anne de Bellevue to Vaudreuil has been ordered by the Provincial Ministry of Roads […] The ban had been decided on in order to prevent accidents and to ensure smooth movement of traffic on the new highways.

        Part 3
        Tiny paragraph at bottom of page: Inquest will be held today into the death of Real Gagne, 9, of 1800 Wolfe street […] injured Friday last when struck by a car at Amherst and Robin streets.

        Another tiny paragraph: Bicyclist, 85, dies of injuries (Text is somewhat damaged, incident with a car took place in Boucherville)

        And another: Truck Breaks Boy’s Leg

        And another: Young Cyclist Injured (another truck accident)

        Also, here’s a faintly entertaining bit of perennial news from the same edition:
        UNIFORMITY URGED IN HISTORY BOOKS
        Perrier Says One Volume for All Schools Would Help National Unity
        SHOCKED BY SITUATION
        Admits He’s Seen English Texts Which Start at 1759 and French Histories That Stop There
        […]

        I’m not clear what Transisland Boulevard was. It’s obviously not the Snowdon residential street by the same name, but whether it means the road that became the Decarie autoroute or the Met, I don’t know.

         
        • dhomas 15:46 on 2019-12-25 Permalink

          According to this book from 1931, it looks like it’s the Met, or something that eventually mutated into it:

          “The Montreal Boulevard, a major undertaking proposed to be constructed from one end to the other of the island of Montreal estimates for the transisland boulevard The location of the Montreal Boulevard avoids the congested section of Montreal, circling the city west of Mount Royal.”

          The Met is technically west of Mount Royal, when not using Montreal cardinal points, so it seems to fit.

        • dhomas 15:51 on 2019-12-25 Permalink

          It looks like the comments ate my ellipses to show where I cut text from the quote.

          It should read:

          “The Montreal Boulevard, a major undertaking proposed to be constructed from one end to the other of the island of Montreal […] estimates for the transisland boulevard […] The location of the Montreal Boulevard avoids the congested section of Montreal, circling the city west of Mount Royal.”

        • Kate 16:05 on 2019-12-25 Permalink

          Thank you, dhomas. “Les Rues de Montréal” was not informative.

          It’s kind of interesting (to me, anyway) that some authorities took advantage of the distraction of war to develop a highway system, even to beginning to ban cyclists from some roads. Not so surprising that the end of the war also brought on the end of the streetcar network, and the growth of the domination of the car.

        • Tim F 09:20 on 2019-12-26 Permalink

          Kate, on the flip side the war effort also kept some public transit running longer than it might have.
          Last year I documented the Wikipedia page on the Montreal and Southern Counties Rwy. and one of the things that helped it stay afloat was the need to keep people and goods moving during the war.

          I didn’t go so far as research the involvement of GM like what happened to streetcars in other metropolitan areas; in this case it was more to do with dwindling ridership on the interurban side and the cost of accommodating the seaway when it came to suburban streetcar service to St Lambert and Greenfield Park.

        • Kate 19:28 on 2019-12-27 Permalink

          Tim F, I guess you’re right that wartime needs balanced it in the other direction as well.

      • Kate 10:45 on 2019-12-25 Permalink | Reply  

        Nakuset, who’s been running the Native Women’s Shelter for 20 years, talks about how things are going for indigenous people living in Montreal. “Don’t feel sorry for us. We have survived 500 years of colonialism and we are still here. That’s huge.”

         
        • Kate 10:21 on 2019-12-25 Permalink | Reply  

          Maybe some people think this is cute: Many armies and agencies tracked Santa, NORAD’s Santa tracker and so on. I do not. It’s an attempt to put a cute, friendly gloss on military surveillance which, though possibly necessary (I’m not here to debate that) is far from cute. The sooner this tradition is allowed to wither away, the better.

          I also notice the francophone media don’t get suckered by this thing, and good for them. CBC undercut the cute thing with a kicker saying “Defence agency also keeping on top of any possible signs of a North Korea missile launch”!

           
          • JaneyB 10:47 on 2019-12-25 Permalink

            I confess I do find it kind of cute though I worry it makes him seem a little too real. I think we were at the sweet spot with Canada Post and the HOH OHO postal code.

          • Chris 13:55 on 2019-12-25 Permalink

            What’s wrong with making him seem real?

          • dhomas 15:53 on 2019-12-25 Permalink

            I don’t think anyone was saying there’s anything wrong with making Santa look real. It’s who’s doing it that’s problematic.

          • dhomas 15:54 on 2019-12-25 Permalink

            Oh, I just noticed JaneyB’s comment about “too real”, and now I understand Chris’ comment.

          • Kevin 16:03 on 2019-12-25 Permalink

            It’s not new. NORAD has been tracking Santa since 1955, before it was NORAD.

          • qatzelok 16:10 on 2019-12-25 Permalink

            If only NORAD were more concerned with whta the other prophets are doing to the world.

        • Kate 10:08 on 2019-12-25 Permalink | Reply  

          La Presse reminds us that public transit is running on holiday schedules.

           
          • Kate 10:06 on 2019-12-25 Permalink | Reply  

            While others were singing carols at midnight mass, a man was stabbed in lower NDG, but is not cooperating with police.

             
            • Kate 10:05 on 2019-12-25 Permalink | Reply  

              The final version of the Montreal City Weblog calendar is now available in high resolution (35MB) and low resolution (4 MB) versions. It’s meant to be printed on 11×17 but works OK on 8.5×11 in a pinch.

               
              • MarcG 14:12 on 2019-12-25 Permalink

                Low-res link isn’t working

              • Kate 16:06 on 2019-12-25 Permalink

                Thanks. Should be good now.

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